[00:00:05] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield Re Max team presents.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Real estate and more. Bay Area real estate is different than in all of America.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: And why?
[00:00:15] Speaker B: What's up with homebuyers? What's on sellers minds? How is the market and much, much more.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Well, welcome back to the real estate and more show and I'm so glad you've tuned in today. Eyes. We're here to talk about keeping eyes on your eyes. We see the world through our own personal windows. Our children do as well. And many of us take our health of seeing eyes for granted. Doctor Michael de Wong of the optometric center and eyewear Galleria in San Ramon is here to touch on how we can each pay more needed attention to our eyes. Welcome back to the real estate and more show, Doctor Duong.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Michael, good to see you this morning. You look wonderful as ever.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: It's Friday and I'm glad to be here.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Fantastic. Now, you've been practicing for many years and have an outstanding practice. Like most things, optometer tree is constantly changing and breaking news on eyes is routine. Would you not agree?
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Yes, I do agree.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: You know, there's so much more on macular degeneration just recently. The dry AMD and the wet AMD, what is the difference?
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Dry AMD is the early stages of macular degeneration. It's when the retina gets thinner and get broken down by deposits in the retina. And that's the early stage. Usually there's not a lot of symptoms. Wet AMD is when the abnormal blood vessels in your retina start to grow into the retina, causing vision loss. So that's the more severe form of macular degeneration.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Wow. Can that be determined at an early age?
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So with routine eye exams, we can pick it up early. It's one of the leading causes of blindness in people age 50 and over. So it's essential to get your eye exam done once a year. And we have very new instrumentation and technology to pick it up early at our annual eye exams.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Is it possible for children to get this as well?
[00:02:18] Speaker A: No, no, it's not possible for children to get it. It's more of a disease that affects us later on in life.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Wow. Well, I noticed just recently was the results of a study of more than 120,000 people aged 50 and older with no history of age related macular degeneration. And the number one cause, they say, of that severe vision loss in adults over age 50 was about one in ten americans were impacted. But the important part is who took melatonin supplements? Have you heard that?
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Yes. That's a new study that was released back in June earlier this year. Year. Mid year, actually. And it's a very promising study. It's a retrospective study, meaning that they took patients from the past and they analyzed those that were taking melatonin.
There's further research that needs to occur with melatonin. There needs to be more studies on it, but the results are very promising. We just need to get more information and run studies on it.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Wow. You got to stay up with a lot of things to be absolutely conscientious eye doctor, which I know that you are.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Let's talk about our young people, the people that we have to raise every day we have to get up with if we have to fix their oatmeal and their eggs or whatever they eat and make sure they're off to school. Their eye health is incredibly important because a lot of problems will manifest from there. So it's an important thing that we keep after them. So what age should children start having regular eye exams?
[00:03:51] Speaker A: The first age is at six months. Is it really a six months? Believe it or nothing, eye problems can be detected like lazy eyes.
Significant prescriptions can be detected at that age, and then if everything's normal at age three. So six months is when you want to bring your child into the optometrist. A lot of optometrists, like our office, is part of infancy, so it's a one time, no cost visual evaluation for a six month child.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Hmm. Well, that sounds like a deal to me. I don't know how you talk to a six month child, especially if it's a female. I've got one considerably older, and I still can't talk to her.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: But, yeah, it's great. We do some testing that there's no need to have verbal communication. We have a lot of fixation targets, little areas where the infant can see, and then we're able to conduct the exam very well.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Wow. So what common vision problems are typically detected to, with children that are, you know, preschool age, kindergarten age, or whatever, what type of illnesses do they have with the eyes?
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Usually it's nearsightedness, meaning that things are far away, are blurry, and things up close are clear. If both parents are nearsighted, the child's 70% likely to be nearsighted. If one parent's nearsighted, the child's 40% likely to be nearsighted. So it's critical to catch that early so that we can help them learn. If you can't see, you can't learn. Another common thing is extreme farsightedness, where they can't see up close. They can see far, but they can't see up close. And that can be corrected with glasses.
We want to provide a clear image onto the eye. If we don't provide a clear image onto the eye, then the brain will not process the image and the child can't see. So we wanted to detect these things early to make sure that developmentally, the child grows up normally.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: That's very important. What about neurological disorders of a child's eyes?
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Neurological disorders can occur. I mean, optic neuropathies can damage the optic nerve, can cause pain, very rare, but can be detected with an eye exam. Optic neuritis, inflammation, optic nerves. There's a whole host of diseases that can affect a child. Mostly you want to rule out strabismus, which is a lazy eye, where the one eye is not working as well as the other. The brain isn't getting that communication from that one eye versus the other. You want to provide that communication between the two eyes so that the eyes can develop normally with lazy eye.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Can that be corrected?
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So vision therapy can correct lazy eyes depending on what type of lazy eye the patient has. Also glasses can help correct the lazy eye.
And then as a last resort, if that does not work, then there's surgery.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Wow. Incredibly important to have those exams. You've been listening to the real estate and more show. We're speaking with optometrist doctor Michael de Wong of optometric center and eyewear galleria, and where he's speaking on the importance of taking care of your eyes. Thank you for listening and viewing. Now back to Doctor Dewong. Now, I would imagine the impact on learning and development with children with eye issues is immense. And I heard somewhere that it was like 75% of children that just have the school eye exams. They miss a lot of things, including eye diseases. What are your take on that?
[00:07:29] Speaker A: What is your take? So the vision screens are a good starting point to direct the child to my office. But vision screens are not a substitute to eye exams and they're only about 27% sensitive and don't diagnose serious eye problems and visual skills. So what you learn is through your eyes. When you get an assessment, our office, we check the eye teaming, the focusing, the convergence, all those types of eye movements, fixation, so those things aren't really picked up at a screening. So that's why it's a very important, regardless of the results of the screening to bring your child in for an eye exam, just to make sure that the screening was normal or abnormal. So if it's normal, you don't want a false sense of security, that it's normal. Oh, the patient can see the letters on a chart. That's just one part of an eye exam. Looking at the chart is one part of an eye exam. They're still looking at the surface of the eye, using our microscope to do that, taking images of the back of the eye. So those things need to occur for a comprehensive eye exam versus a screening that essentially tests your ability to see letters on a chart.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: I was so impressed. Breast just recently, and from my eye exam and coming into Doctor Wynong's office as an example, you see a lot of technological gear, a lot of stations, so to speak. You go to one machine to the next machine to have one well qualified technician help you, and they put little puffs in your eyes and this kind of stuff. But I was impressed because he, at the end, could go over the images of the back of my eye and show where the optic nerve comes in, the condition of the retina and all of that, and put it all together to say, okay, well, you've been drinking too much. You haven't been drinking enough, or you have these issues from some other kind of things. But I was just impressed with the amount of equipment that you see in there today. So I would imagine with a child, they don't know half the time, I would think, whether or not they would have an eye issue or not.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Correct? Yeah. It's hard for them to communicate that. So we definitely want to be proactive as parents, grandparents to bring the child in for their eye exam, because pretty much all of the eye diseases that take away your vision don't have pain. So if there's no pain, why would the child complain? They might have a little blurred vision, but they might not know what that means or what that is.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah. We were shocked when we were raising our daughter, who's grown now, when she was growing up, to find out that her vision wasn't as good as it should have been.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Right. Right.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: And I understand there's actually a connection now between ADHD and vision problems. We'll be right back. Three max. And here's Michael Hatfield, business owners. Have you considered how important the appearance and impression your offices make to prospective customers? Appearance and impression are critical to clients, thus to your overall success. If your company could use that warm, inviting and welcoming appearance, I have an amazing complex of offices just listed for leads in the quaint town of Danville. Freshly remodeled, meticulously built, the 3700 square foot space enjoys incredible street exposure, front and side entrances, abundant parking, reception, conference room, eleven individual offices, even a team member kitchen. This premium space is located in a blue ribbon building maintained by the renowned Sherman properties group. Waste not 1 minute. Call us now. Get help with buying or selling by calling the Michael Hatfield re Max accord team. 1800 857 63. That's 1800 857 63. Working with Michael and nancy, I was.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: A first time home buyer and I was very nervous about the process. I didn't really know what to expect. Michael and Nancy were able to take.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: That fear away from me and answered all of my questions. They were right by my side the.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Entire time and they really helped me.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Find the perfect home for me and I'm so thankful.
Back to our show.
So if they have vision problems, it can enhance the attention deficit disorder. And, you know, things that are recent developments that you're right on top of just seems to be the way to go. What can we expound on? What type of behaviors children may manifest at school if they have eye issues?
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Right, like you touched on that topic, ADHD. So if you can't see, then you'll be frustrated and you can act out, you know, you can have depression, you can have certain developmental disorders. So you want to make sure that, you know, you get your eyes checked. So it's very important. Confidence. I mean, imagine not being able to keep up with your classmates because you can't see. So. And also, you know, being able to just play normally with the other children because of your vision impairment. So it's a big, it's a big deal. You want to see as good as everybody else in your class whether you need glasses or not.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Parents should keep an eye out for these kind of things too, should they not?
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Are there signs that they should be looking?
[00:12:43] Speaker A: They're having difficulty learning, difficulty reading, unable to pay attention, just not following the assignments and the homework. That's a big red flag that need to get their eye exam.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: My problem was that I had all of those problems, but my eyes were okay back in the day.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: You know, you were bored, you know, you were bored.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: I guess. I don't know what it was, but it just tends to, to be some behavioral issues. And what I thought was kind of interesting just reading was that there's actually nine behaviors. Disruptive talking, clumsiness, acting out disinterest in the schoolwork. As you pointed out, headaches and squinting can't maintain to the focused holding things too closely and self isolation. Kind of amazing that all of these could be directly attributable to eye issues that can be detected by going and seeing doctor Michael de Wong at the optometric center. So there are also psychological issues that are associated with vision problems. Can you talk about that?
[00:13:49] Speaker A: You know, absolutely. You know, just as you spoke before, just the, you know, confidence and being able to keep up in school and being able to communicate properly because you can't see, you can't focus. I mean, you get frustrated. So, you know, having clear vision corrects a lot of that. I mean, a lot of these children are diagnosed with having learning difficulties and when in fact they just need a pair of glasses. It's, you know, we're trying to make things a little too complicated.
I feel if you go see your pediatrician, you go see your eye doctor, we can rule those things out and if there's further investigation that's needed, then we can point to the right direction. But most of the so called learning, you know, disabilities is, you know, their eyes aren't working properly.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Mmm. So simple sounding.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: But parents, you know, both parents are working, rushing kids to school.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: Understood.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Trying to take care of the trips to the, to the market between their breaks. Yeah, things get real busy.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: They do.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: But I think Doctor Dewong is saying, hey, if you start having these behavioral issues with Johnny or Susie, then perhaps you should first check their eyes out.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, it's an hour out of your day. I know everyone's busy running around things like that. It's once a year. Yeah, we're not, you know, it really should be part of taking care of yourself. I mean, everyone should go see their primary once a year. I know we get busy and we don't do that, but we got to try to do that. We got to be healthy for ourselves and for our kids. We ought to just follow that mantra.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: What about tracking skills? With children, if their tracking skills aren't developed adequately, it's going to have a real negative impact on a child. His ability for reading fluency and comprehension and writing and so forth like that. The eye tracking is incredibly important.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Absolutely. With this day and age, with digital media, tracking is one of the essential skills for visual, for good learning. And these skills can only be assessed during a comprehensive eye exam. So we do tracking to see if the child can track. And if there's an issue, we can address it with certain type of treatments, maybe corrective lenses or vision therapy.
So we can definitely help with that.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: You mean that's one of those fancy tech machines that are in there, correct?
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Well, there's sure a bunch of them in there. They're all seeming to be used at all times when I've been there.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: That's just really impressive. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
Michael, what traits should we look for in selecting an agent? Look for a deal maker with a positive attitude who will work tirelessly for you. An agent who is adept in multiple offer situations, drafting contracts, marketing and advertising. A client's home is familiar with multiple cultures, experienced in mortgage financing, inspections and escrow is a huge asset to his client. What can you do as a plus for clients? Your agent is your eyes and your ears, one who works behind the scenes on your behalf. A great attitude, working well with others and keeping clients priorities. Number one is a given for us. Call 925-32-2775 now to schedule an appointment or complimentary home analysis for excellence in real estate. Call the Michael Hatfield remax team at 925-32-2775 or go to michaelhatfieldhomes.com dot. Now back to our show. So not talking, just talking about our children, but what about all of us? Early detection of eye problems typically prevent a lot more serious issues that can happen in the future in your life. A funny story, and I'll just digress for a second. Washington when I first started flying with the airline, I was like 24, 25 years old, and the captain would say, you know, about the time that you're 40 years old, you're going to have a hard time reading the approach chart, small data, he says, go out and go to the corner drugstore and get about four or five of those cheaters, those two dollar cheaters, and put them everywhere.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: And so that's what I would do, is I went and did it and I found that all four or five pair of those cheaters ended up in one place and never wear one. But nowadays you really need to have the right reading glasses and so forth that work really well, I would say, absolutely.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah. You just have to get it measured. And, you know, we do that. We measure the glasses. Prescription needed for up close reading and individuals 40 years of age and older.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Vision loss is something really, really tough. I can imagine the difficulties of someone like the famous musical artist Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra called him the only real, true genius in the music business. But he had to overcome so much as well as Andrea Bocelli, in order to perpetuate their career and continue and do so much successful work with their music. So dealing with some type of vision loss or blindness. Could have been just devastating. Yeah, devastating. Almost an insurmountable way to go. So I can only admire those personal accomplishments in order to do something like that.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: I mean, in fact, they actually had glaucoma. So Ray Charles, I believe, had congenital glaucoma and was diagnosed at age six or seven years of age. And also Bocelli was born with glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that causes increased eye pressure. So the systems that regulated the eye pressure were nothing fully developed in those superstars, and they overcame it by learning braille and.
And just enhancing their other senses. So it's. It's remarkable what they've done with their lives.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: The long term benefits to regular eye exams, it just has to go beyond career success, academic success. You just have to go along. Would you like to expound on that? A little bit of.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Can you repeat the question?
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Okay, sure. Are there long term benefits to your regular eye exams that go way beyond just academic and career success? It would seem like it works in everything you do.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Health, I mean, it's, with the eye exams, if I. I can pick up something, that patient might have diabetes. So that can affect your overall health. Obviously, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness and also, you know, glaucoma, macular degeneration. So those things, you know, the quality of life is what it comes down to if you have a blinding condition, affects your over your overall quality of life. So beyond work and academic performance, we think outside the office, you know, going to Paris, looking at the Eiffel Tower, going to New York City, just enjoying the sights and sounds, you know, seeing a bird fly across in your backyard. I mean, those are things that, you know, we should enjoy every day. You know, nature. I love sitting in my backyard and watching the hummingbirds hum around. And you can't see. You can't, you know, do those things if you've lost vision.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Imagine. It's important also to see the facial expressions of one's wife.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: When you say the wrong things.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: You've been with your bride for five years or so? Yeah.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we have a little one, and he's great. He's 17 months old, and I enjoy seeing him every day. When I come home for lunch, they're out the door waving to me. When I leave, they're waving to me. So those things I don't take for granted, and it's a blessing. Absolutely.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Wow. Did you always have eye correction on a personal basis?
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Yes. So as a kid, I had a lazy eye. My eyes were turned in. So when I saw the optometrist, he gave me corrective lenses to straighten out my eyes. So I had Strabismus as a child. And then from there, I can wearing glasses to straighten my eyes out. Now that I'm, you know, in my forties, I need the progressive glasses so I can see far and up close. So my glasses have progressives in them.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And, folks, I got to tell you, if you go into Doctor Dewong's offices, they waste no time. They get you through what's required to determine the status of your eyes, make recommendations, and constantly work with you. And I have such a fun time when I go in there. They like the older guy that comes in and teases him, I think. And I get them laughing every time I go in there. But they're very, very professional. They're very efficient at what they do, and they take really good care of you. Over in San Ramon, I would look him up because they're not much better in the business. Now, I have a friend who's. Yeah, thank you. Who's a retinal eye surgeon, and I may have mentioned to him to you before, and he was talking the other day. We were walking. He was talking. I said, well, you know, don't you just use a robot? Like a pilot uses an auto, autopilot to do your retinal repairs? And he says, absolutely not. And why is that? And he says, the primary reason is that the tools that I use are not much bigger than tweezers. And then I have an expansion device that shows what I'm. I'm trying to do. It zooms. It zooms it in really close. And for some reason, the equipment has not advanced at the level that I'm comfortable with to be working on people's eyes. And he's really a good guy. He's really sharp, well known. But you work hand in hand with these specialists. If I find some situation where retinal detachment or I this or that, I imagine you run across these things.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: You have a specialist bank that you go to and people.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Yes. I don't hesitate to refer if there's a retinal tear detachment. If anything, if there's severe glaucoma, we have a group of specialists that we refer to. So think of us as your primary care eye doctor, kind of like your PCP. And if there's something that needs surgical intervention, even Lasik, you know, Lasik. I refer to ophthalmologists that do Lasik. I refer to retinal specialists that do retina surgeries. I refer to glaucoma specialists. So we do have a great team, and we work hand in hand to provide the best care possible. At the end of the day, we want the best outcomes for our patients.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Boy, I sure like them. You know, you and I have been talking all along about Lasix for me, and then we talked about Orthok.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: And I think I'm at the same, at the point where the Lasix is probably the next step for what I'm to do. But then he's also advised me that we should wait until the cataracts are at a certain point and then do the replacement with the new lens.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Totally agree. 100%.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Well, that's one of the things that I've been very pleased with, with Doctor Demong's service, is that he advises you along the way. He's not just a part time physician that come in, do your eye exam, you know, bill your insurance, and you're out the door. You know, you're working hand in hand with your patients as you go along. And a patient like me is very appreciative of that.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: You know, we do the same thing with the real estate business. You know, we work with people. We put them into a home. Whether or not it's a buyer or we sell their home, we're there for them. They say, do you have a painter? Do you have someone else that you can help us with? What about a sewer lateral issue?
What can you do? Well, we stay with our clients the way you stay with your patients. And that's a very, very admirable trait in a physician and physician's office. I know it's easy for a physician to say, yeah, I'm going to do it, but whether or not you do or not is another thing. And Doctor Dewong's office, the good doctor here has just been exceptional with us. So, in closing today, doctor, what do you have to say? Words of enlightenment for our audience.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: I would say, don't take your vision for granted, and make sure. Take care of yourself first. Get yourself in, get your eyes checked. It's not too late. I know the end of the year is ramping up, but make that happen before you get too busy. And then also make sure you take care of your loved ones and make sure that they get their eyes checked as well.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: Today's digital world, kids, they just sit there with their, their iPads and their phones, and it's got to be very tiring for their eyes. Absolutely stressing with them.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Absolutely. Particularly if they do have a vision problem and they're trying to use those devices, it's going to be even more of a pain. Best thing to do is to take breaks every hour. Take a five minute break. That goes for everybody. No matter how long you are, you know when you're on the screen working 8 hours a day, like most of our patients are working from home. Now after Covid, you gotta get up. You gotta get up every, every hour. Take a five minute break. Walk away from your dual monitor, single monitor, cell phone. Those things need to happen or else other things can happen like dry eyes.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: So should we limit the screen time for our children?
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Yes, as much as we can limit the screen time.
They have to do assignments, they have to do their homework, play video games, but you have to try to have them play outside at least 2 hours a day.
2 hours a day? Yeah, 2 hours a day. That's the most important thing to, to.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Have them do with the phone left inside, correct?
[00:27:35] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Well, most people eventually will at some point have to struggle with eye issues or some loss of eyesight for sure. I believe we should at least know if her child has eye problem as the good doctor Dewan suggests, he has solutions through the regular comprehensive eye exams. And those are essential. And you can get these exams while protecting your vision and the vision of your children. You can find Doctor Dewong at the optometric center and eyewear Galleria in San Ramon. See doctor Michael Dewong. He's a great guy. This is not an advertisement. This is an endorsement that's coming from me. And thank you for being coming back on the show. Doctor Dewong, it's always a pleasure to see you.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: You bet.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Thanks Mike.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: You've been listening to the real estate and more show. I'm your host Michael Hatfield. The real estate and more show is now available on demand on Spotify, Amazon and most major directories as well. I hope you'll tune in next week. And in the meantime, have a blessed week. Please remember to go to our new YouTube handle, my real talk show. That's my
[email protected]. and touch that subscribe button. You can also find past aired shows at our handle myrealtalkshow on YouTube.com dot.
